Pages

June 19, 2009

G67: Atlanta 8, Red Sox 2

A horrific five-batter start from Matsuzaka put the Red Sox in a quick hole. Coupled with their weak offense -- Boston has collected only three hits in their last 14 innings -- it was a disheartening night from beginning to end.

Boston got a two-run bomb to left from Jason Bay in the sixth, but that was the offense. Only one other Red Sox runner advanced past first base -- and that was Bay, as well, as he doubled in the second and took third on a passed ball.

How bad was Dice's first inning?

Nate McLouth: First pitch HR to right-center

Yunel Escobar: Ball 1, line drive single to left

Chipper Jones: First pitch double roped to right

Brian McCann: Ball 1, ball 2, ball 3, ball 4 (bases loaded)

Garret Anderson: Ball 1, ball 2, ball 3, ball 4 (RBI, bases loaded)

As Justin Masterson began throwing in the bullpen, Matsuzaka slipped a strike past Matt Diaz to a raucous cheer -- the first strike he had thrown that was not hammered for a hit. It was Dice's 13th pitch of the night. He lasted two batters into the fifth (4-8-6-4-2, 67) and saw his ERA rise to 8.23.

Matsuzaka did have a decent stretch after that bases-loaded walk gave Atalanta a 2-0 lead. He struck out Diaz and got lucky when Casey Kotchman lined into an unassisted DP to Kevin Youkilis. Dice walked the leadoff man in the second, but had no other trouble (11 pitches), allowed a two-out single in the third (12 pitches) and retired the first two batters in the fourth on three pitches.

Then a walk, double and single doubled Atlanta's lead to 4-0. And Dice allowed back-to-back doubles to start the fifth; both of those runners eventually scored, as well.

That 12-batter stretch was encouraging -- until the roof fell in. And so, the only question being asked is: How long can the front office keep sending him out to the mound?

Kawakami (who turns 34 next Monday) is a rookie right-hander from Japan. He made his debut on April 11 and has made 12 starts this year. In a spring training game back on March 30, Kawakami allowed two runs to the Red Sox in six innings.

Opponents are batting .372 against Matsuzaka, along with a robust 1.059 OPS. That OPS would be good for 5th best in MLB. His BABIP is .444! ... Beckett got his act together. So did Lester. Penny doing well, too. It's your turn, Dice.

IYI: On Wednesday, Dustin Pedroia became the first Red Sox second baseman since 1954 to log at least three hits, three RBIs and two stolen bases in a game. ... Derek Lowe is blogging.

We had a similar issue with Comcast, Benjamin. They said they would be here between 11 and 2, but did not show up til 3. And did nothing when they got here. Guy says just a lot of traffic is the reason we are getting such slow service at night.

Btw make sure nobody's downloading things on another computer. I used to download using Bittorrent and everyone else in the house had sludge for internet speed.

Your bittorrent client should have settings for speed limits. Set 'em for about half of what your max is (on up and down) and it shouldn't bother anyone. Although if we're streaming video, I just turn it off.

Amy that doesn't sound good. But what I don't buy is it's just Comcast's high traffic. Yes your speed will go down if you have cable and there's high traffic but it won't go down by that much. Often times you won't even notice it. If it was a Comcast issue then you'd hear of many more people complaining about it, I think. Stupid cop-out answer by the techs eh?

So there is something called Infinite Summer starting this weekend, where thousnads of people all over the world (?) are going to be reading Infinite Jest from June 21 to September 22 (75 pages a week).

I still cannot decide if I want to do it. I fear getting caught up in the many blogs/boards discussing it and having it suck away my time.

If there was no baseball this summer, it would be an easy choice.

Maybe I'll read it over the winter, but then the community won't be there.

75 pages a week doesn't sound too onerous, especially since you have read it several times already, IIRC. So you just have to limit your time on the blogs/chat. I'd go for it. You can always stop if it gets overwhelming.

I'll answer my own question about Dice-K: I'd DL him. I know that probably wouldn't be popular with him, but these beatings just can't continue. He's been terrible each and every start, and there are too many good pitchers waiting for a turn for the Red Sox to just get their butts kicked every fifth day.

Amy,I am watching the game *when* I am folding laundry. And I am folding laundry on breaks from transcribing grueling testimony of an Iraq War deserter. I have been doing this since 7:30 this morning.:(

Eck, obviously, did a good job on Daisuke. There is this Japanese guys in their third year in the major leagues thing (Nomo, etc.) but what has stood out since we first saw him in our uniform is his refusal to throw the ball over the plate. Once hitters realized this, they would take his pitches, get him in a hole and then hit the vaunted fastball. This is not major league pitching.

To have hm pich this way, while Buchholz is wasting pitches in PawSox games is really infair to the Red Sox major league team.